Polish parliament approves new payouts for families

The Polish parliament on Thursday approved a flagship government bill for new payouts designed to encourage families to have more children.

PM Beata Szydło in parliament. Photo: PAP/Tomasz Gzell

The handouts, a key pledge by the Law and Justice (PiS) party ahead of its victory in the country’s October general election, are to come into force in April.

The bill will now come before the Senate, the upper house, which meets on Friday.

"This is a special day for Polish families,” Prime Minister Beata Szydło said before MPs voted to approve the handouts.

With Poland facing a demographic crisis, the new PiS government's “500+” programme aims to ease the burdens of child-rearing by giving all families with two or more children a handout of PLN 500 (USD 127, EUR 112) a month per child, regardless of their income level.

Poorer families will receive the allowance even if they have just one child.

During debates, the parliament rejected amendments by the opposition to exclude richer families from receiving handouts. (pk)